Nokia N8 review: First look

Nokia's bundled web browser is finally good enough that you don't need to downloaded a third party browser, such as Opera. The N8 supports multitouch gestures, so you can pinch your fingers to zoom in and out of web pages.

The browser also supports Flash - hurrah! Although it uses the cut-down Flash Lite engine instead of the full Flash Player, in our tests most Flash-based content rendered almost perfectly. Google is set as the default for search, but this can easily be changed to Bing in the browser settings.

One aspect that is missing from the Nokia browser is the ability to open up multiple pages and switch between them using tabs. This is already present in the BlackBerry OS 6 and Opera browsers, so it's a shame to see such a basic feature missing from an otherwise proficient browser.

Typing with the onscreen Qwerty keyboard is comfortable, although it's much easier to use in landscape mode since this makes the keys bigger. What is missing is multitouch within the messaging apps, so you can use shortcuts like a normal hardware keyboard.